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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

Bangor man finding grateful new homes for old football boots with 'Reboot Scheme'

A Co Down man is trying to encourage more kids to get into football and sport by ensuring that they're kitted out with football boots.

Craig Reid plays football himself and said he noticed through his work that some kids would not take part in football because they didn't have the right gear.

"There was a load of lads who wouldn't take part in PE or weren't part of the football team and I was asking them why?", he told Belfast Live.

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"They said they had no boots basically and that's where it came from.

"I literally gave them a few spare pairs of my old boots and they were over the moon.

"I thought then that I'm sure there's more kids out there that want to play football and just don't have the money."

Craig said he then started to think about the financial pressures facing some families, with some football boots costing up to £70/80.

He then went and set up the Reboot NI Facebook page as a way of advertising that he had spare boots to give out.

"There were about 20 pairs donated to me, so I started cleaning them up and sharing them.

"The next minute I'm getting mails from mums or students saying 'would you mind if I have those boots?'.

"The response has been really good, I've been driving round picking them up or delivering them.

"They're not bad boots these, not sitting there with holes in them or anything, these are all decent boots that people are donating."

He said in an ideal world he would love to expand beyond operating simply off Facebook and help even more people.

"My dream would be to open a second-hand shop and people can just make a donation or even just have some funds sitting there, so that if someone didn't have enough to pay for match or training fees, they could reach out and get help," he added.

"Not even just kids, it could be for adults too that can't afford to play.

"I know how much football helps with my mental health and I know it's really positive and I don't think people should be held back because of money."

He has also been trying to organise stocks so that he is able to save families from having to spend heavily on the things that kids like to have for football.

"I've had a few people donating football kits and that too and I've been keeping them so I can try and match it up with a set of boots that would fit that age," he said.

"So I can say to a family or whatever, here's a pair of boots, shin guards and kit - it saves them buying all that."

The Reboot NI Facebook page can be accessed here.

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